---
title: “It cannot possibly be the King’s son,” replied the General, humbly. — Winning Buddha's smile · tree and pragmatics
description: “It cannot possibly be the King’s son,” replied the General, humbly. Who acts: General. A sentence of «Winning Buddha's smile», Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 8, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Winning Buddha's smile, Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 8, sentence 88

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“It cannot possibly be the King’s son,” replied the General, humbly.

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**Who acts:** General · **What happens:** not be, reply · **To what, where:** son · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Winning Buddha's smile», Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (General), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg78208:10:88
# text = “It cannot possibly be the King’s son,” replied the General, humbly.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	10	advmod	_	_
5	possibly	possibly	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
6	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	cop	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	’s	's	PART	POS	_	8	case	_	_
10	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
13	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	General	General	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	humbly	humbly	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is a** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | the King's son |  |  |  | the King *nmod:poss*; possibly *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | the General |  |  |  |  | humbly *property* | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |

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One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «Winning Buddha's smile», Project Gutenberg book 78208 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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